Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov

VIENNA, June 16. /TASS/. The Ukrainian authorities are interested in the deterioration of the situation in the east of the country ahead of large international events to preserve the sanctions pressure on Russia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov said on Tuesday answering a question from a TASS correspondent.

"It’s obvious that there are forces in the world and in Ukraine, which are interested in the deterioration of the situation on the ground in the run-up to major international events, including EU summits, in order to urge the international community to extend sanctions and impose new ones," he said.

"Our principled position is: Russia did not impose sanctions, we are not asking anyone to lift them," Meshkov added.

"We are realists, we carefully analyze what our Western partners say. But the general idea is that the sanctions logic should continue until full implementation of the Minsk agreements, whose term expires at the end of the year," the Russian deputy foreign minister said. Meshkov added that he found it strange that "the responsibility for the implementation of the agreements, which should be honored by the two parties to the Ukrainian conflict, was placed on Russia."